.christmas in SC part3.

On Tuesday morning my dad made some delicious waffles then HattieJo had some "santa" gifts to open...as if she hadn't already got tons of stuff! Andrew said, "and where is all this going to go when we get home?" haha!
Later that morning I went to visit a little girl that I taught when she was in 2nd grade, now she is in 7th, so that made me feel old! Then we did some shopping... Then rested up for a night out to eat, Christmas lights, and Hot-N-Now Krispy Kreme.

.christmas in SC part2.

On Monday morning we headed up to Greer to spend some time with several friends that we went to college with! It was so fun! Clay and Amber had their little girl, Kyley, the same day that HattieJo was born. Then my friend, Joanna, lives across the street from them and she has a little boy, Cooper, who is a little over 1 month old. We had such a great time catching up and eating some delicious breakfast! The girls had fun playing with each other til HattieJo got tired and was ready for her morning nap. HattieJo will say "CHEESE" as soon as she sees the camera!The rest of the day was filled with hanging out with my family until dinner time, Andrew's best friends, Patrick and Eric came over for dinner. HattieJo of course loved entertaining them! When they left HattieJo opened some of her Christmas presents from my family. HattieJo decided that she would open them up in her diaper until she opened a super cute dress from Aunt Bec that she wanted to put on for the rest of the present opening time!HattieJo was exhausted by the end of the night and slept so well!

:Merry Christmas:

Wishing y'all a Merry Christmas! May today be a sweet reminder of Jesus and His unconditional love for us, and the eternal life that we have because of Him.

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given' and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6
"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name, Immanuel, which means God with us." Matthew 1:23
"For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." Colossians 1:19

*Joy to the World*

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

.christmas in SC.

We left last Saturday night after church and headed to SC to have Christmas with my family! We arrived at 12am in hopes that HattieJo would stay asleep and transfer into her already set up pack n play.... she on the other hand had a different plan! She thought it best to wake up..WIDE AWAKE.. and see everyone. She stayed awake until 4am! Then only slept until 7:15, but she was in the best little mood when she woke up.
On Sunday, we enjoyed going to my family's church, the church I grew up in, and got to see all of their friends and LOTS of elderly people who remembered when I was HattieJo's age. They all said she was a "spitting image" of me! HattieJo looked adorable in her little Christmas dress that my dad had picked out for her, however the only picture we got was in the car on the way to church. After church we relaxed while my mom prepared lunch and my uncle and his side of the family joined us for lunch!After HattieJo's nap, Santa came early with a nice kitchen set for her! My dad said when he saw this in the store he just had to get it for her. She LOVED it and all the noises that it made. She has been playing with it constantly since we got home too!
After a delicious pizza dinner my parents neighbor, Bon Bonn, came down. Bon Bonn has been my parents "backdoor neighbor" for 26 years, so she has watched Rebekah and I grow up! She loves us as we were her own children. She got HattieJo a HUGE stuffed animal bear and HattieJO snuggled him while she opened her other gifts. We had a packed first day, but it was so fun!

:Christmas at the Hopper House:

I LOVE Christmas time. I get so excited when it is time to get the tree out and get the house decorated! It has been fun this year, because HattieJo notices ALL the decorations around the house including the tree which she LOVES! She will walk over to it if I have not plugged it in and say, "chee, chee." So we will plug it in and her eyes get wide and her mouth opens as big as it will get! PRICELESS! I love this time of the year as well because I feel like it is season of reflection on what the Lord has done in the past year! Its great too because we get to spend so much time with our family and friends and make so many fun memories!
Here are a few highlights our our Christmas decorations....
*the tree.... Our tree is awesome! It is HUGE, fake, and prelit! On the tree are all special ornaments. Each year growing up my parents and Andrew's parents gave us each an ornament that was special to something in our lives that year, then when we got married, we got all our ornaments! So those decorate our tree along with the ornaments that we have gotten for HattieJo the past 2 years. I am so excited to start this tradition for her.

*the dining room mantle... We had to put our stockings on the mantle in the dining room because HattieJo's chair is under the mantle in the living room so that was dangerous to have them hanging above her head!

Here are a few other random bits of Christmas in our home!

.bundled for a wagon ride.

.my sweet little monkey.

.yard work.

The other Sunday Andrew was outside raking up the millions of leaves and pine needles around our house, so after HattieJo's napped, we joined him and Lucy outside! It was so fun. HattieJo would run over to his piles and begin to pick up the stuff and place it outside the pile. Lucy was right by HattieJo's side most of the time. This dog LOVES HattieJo and doesn't let her get out of her sight! HattieJo will say, "ucy, ucy, ucy."

.HattieJo update.

So I realized that I had been so diligent to post a picture and an update on HattieJo each month, up until she turned 1 year old.. but I have not done it since then... So here is what she is up to now at 15months (almost 16 months old). WHERE HAS TIME GONE?

HattieJo is such a joy to us! Her smile will brighten up the room! She is now in to EVERYTHING. She loves to grab things off the counter or from wherever she can reach things on her tiptoes! Its so funny to watch her grabbing things. She is a PRO at climbing the stairs and she is FAST. She loves to ride piggy back on the way down the stairs. She is talking NON STOP. She is putting together lots of jibberish into a full on story about something! She says the following words consistently; dada, mama, dog, puppy, yes, no, what's this, that, tree, beep beep (for a car), lights, just said church the other night, bye bye, bite(with her mouth wide open), baby, boo(for book), shoes, ball, cheese (when she wants to eat it or when she sees a camera)! (That is all I can think of right now!). She understands so much it is amazing. She is able to follow several different multi-step directions. Andrew and I were talking the other day about how she is such a sponge right now. She is always looking around and listening. She LOVES other kids, just last night at church she was running wide open with 4 little boys (all 3years old and older) and she was having a blast. She was chasing them and then would tickle them when they fell down. She would walk up to them and just start giving them an ear full about something! She is all about playing with her baby doll right now. She carries the baby everywhere with her (on her hip!). She tries to change the baby's diaper, will pat her and tell her "shh, shh." Its so sweet. She enjoys snuggling at night before her bedtime. She is eating EVERYTHING. She loves to eat whatever we are eating. She is doing a great job using her fork to stab her food and then put it into her mouth! Her favorite thing to eat is a powdered sugar donut with her daddy... I love to watch her smack her lips while eating it. She is a DANCING MACHINE (video to come soon). Anytime the girl hears music she starts moving! Her newest dance move is to spin in a circle! She is obsessed with brushing her teeth, I know its a good thing, but it is hilarious how she wants to do it ALL THE TIME! She is a pro at brushing, spitting, then wiping her mouth when she is finished. She really enjoys reading books, she will get them out of her book basket and just sit in the floor or her little chair and "read" outloud to herself, she even knows when the book is upside down! She will point to her; ears, mouth, tongue, eyes, nose, and belly when you tell her too... she will even point to it on you! She LOVES to give kisses, at first they were open mouth kisses, but now she closes her mouth and pokes out her bottom lip while her head is titled up in the air! LOVE IT!!!!!!!! She is a SOCIAL BUTTERFLY, the girl LOVES to talk to people and smile at them. When we are out and about she doesn't meet a stranger! Every time we are out and about doesn't matter where we are people will stop and talk back to her.

I could go on and on, but I think these are some highlights of things that are going on in HattieJo's little world!

*all these pics where taken the day after Thanksgiving when we had a little photo shoot!*

.it's beginning to look.....

a lot like Christmas....

Like I said, the day after Thanksgiving in the evening we began decorating for Christmas! It was SO FUN to see HattieJo's reaction to everything! Her expressions and words were priceless!! She loved the tree and will still every time I plug it in gasp.. It is precious! She loved getting out all the ornaments and other Christmas trinkets.

:Thanksgiving Part 3:

Here are a couple of pics of something that HattieJo LOVES to do... talk on the phone! She is hilarious... she will jabber jabber and then start laughing and then continue talking. Here she is on Thanksgiving. I think she was calling her Gigi and Poppa to tell them that she was missing them!

The day after Thanksgiving we were not crazy about waking up at the crack of dawn to catch the deals, so we waited for HattieJo to wake from her morning nap (which would make for a better day for EVERYONE!) and we headed out. We hit up several stores and still took part in some great deals. After the shopping we went to lunch and from lunch Andrew surprised me with a movie date. My parents to HattieJo to the mall to do some more shopping then home to relax. It was so wonderful to go out with Andrew and knowing that HattieJo was just getting SPOILED... I mean LOVED by my parents and sister. When we got home we had dinner and then transformed th house into a winter wonderland(next post).

:Thanksgiving Part 2:

My mom LOVES to cook and it VERY talented when it comes to cooking! She spent from 7:30-3:30 in the kitchen Thanksgiving Day and boy was it DELICIOUS!!!!! Here is the spread; sweet potato casserole, butter beans, greenbean casserole, mac-n-cheese, dressing, turkey, potato salad, rolls, gravy, and cranberry sauce! For dessert (my sister and I did the desserts) we had ice cream sandwich delight and pumpkin pie cake. We were so excited to have 3 of our dear friends from church, who serve alongside of us on Saturday nights and are vital to what goes on Saturday nights!!!, over to eat with us!

:Thanksgiving Part 1:

Yes, I realize that we are in December, but hey don't you want to know how we spend our week off during Thanksgiving???.. So here ya go!

Tugboat: This was my sisters when she was a little one, HattieJo LOVES to climb in and out, over and over again! And she turns the steering wheel like a mad woman... we have lots to teach her before she starts driving! (don't know why Grandaddy has his eyes closed?!?)

Andrew fried us a turkey this year and it was DELICIOUS! So on Wednesday night he had to rub the turkey down with some cajun rub.... little did we know that it would have the WHOLE fridge and freezer smelling like cajuns the next morning! On Thursday morning we woke up BRIGHT AND EARLY to head to Wake Forest, for the Gobbler Run. I have ran this the past 2 years, but thought it would be fun to have my sister do it with me this year, and since she isn't a runner we just walked it! It was still so fun!Andrew even brought along Hoss! HattieJo did a great job riding and watching until about mile 2 and she had had enough, so I thought what the heck it's not like we are trying to finish this in a certain amount of time... I am getting her out. So the little thing walked the last mile! She had a blast! At one point she got tired and just sat down in the middle of the road (didn't have my camera). Needless to say she took a GREAT nap when we got home.

.the vacuum cleaner.

HattieJo IS NOT a fan of the vacuum cleaner. I always have to vacuum when she is outside because she will run and cry because she doesn't like it. If I am vacuuming upstairs and she is downstairs she will run and cling to Andrew when she hears it cut on. So on Thursday night, I was at Ladies Night Out at the Summit and Andrew sent me this picture: So I am assuming, from the look on her face and the fact that she is standing on it, that she has become friends with the vacuum now!

.Daddy's Little Helper.

.Tom and Jerry.

The other night when I was trying to get dinner ready HattieJo was being super clingy! So her daddy swept her away to watch some Tom and Jerry on YouTube. She THOROUGHLY enjoyed herself and didn't want to get down from watching when one little show went off. As they were watching it Andrew and I laughed at how violent it was in parts, but that is what we grew up watching!